House Crashing: A Cozy & Creative Townhouse

We know you guys love seeing a wide range of homes when it comes to House Crashing, so when Katrina invited us over to run around her townhouse and snap some photos to share with you guys, we jumped at the chance. She’s a super creative momma who lives right here in Richmond with a lot of awesome found/collected items mixed with things that she has DIYed herself. And here she is now, with her adorable son Luke and her husband Nate.

When you enter the townhouse, there’s a gorgeous cozy wall color (Gauntlet Gray by Sherwin Williams) that envelops you, along with the rich wood floors that her hubby installed himself on all three floors. Everything from the vintage light fixture to the quirky wooden shoe-molds-turned-coat-hooks really makes the space feel one of a kind.

When you walk upstairs there’s the living room, which is painted the same rich color, but has a lot of lighter pops (in the furniture, the mantel, etc) along with pretty frames and mirrors to bounce around a lot of light. The starburst mirrors are from Target but Katrina used Grecian Gold Rub-N-Buff from Michael’s on them to get that gilded look.

Those paper butterflies were actually something Katrina bought on Etsy (from a shop called Embellished Paper) and pinned to an old pallet to cover up the hole that the townhouse builder had left over the fireplace for a TV (she didn’t think putting a TV in there made for the best furniture arrangement since the fireplace is on an angle). I loved the mix of the rustic wood and the delicate white paper butterflies.

And here’s little Luke modeling his play area, which is a mixture of old and new (and DIY and store-bought). The bookcase is from Ikea, but when it’s mixed with the old map, the oversized clock, and the mason jars that Katrina painted white and hung on the wall, it has a casual and eclectic feeling.

Here’s the rest of the living room as you turn to the left of the little play area for Luke. Well, this is what it looked like before they moved in and made it their own…

… and this is what it looks like now.

I love how the dark walls balance the light furniture and the large frames add color with those cheerful yellow squares. Katrina just grabbed some Ikea frames and used yellow paper and some inexpensive medallions from the craft store that she spray painted silver inside of each frame to create some architectural art for a steal.

I also love the little touches, like the paper mache deer head that Katrina topped with a few extra butterflies from the mantel project – just to bring that detail to the other side of the room. The cool thing about that deer head is that he’s from Z Gallerie and Katrina modge podged him with wallpaper scraps. “He was all white and a little plasticy looking so I made him look a little more special.”

I love that Katrina isn’t afraid of making her townhouse stand out from all the others. No detail is too small for her, and I loved noticing small upgrades that she added, like the wide stripes that she painted just on the inside of the pass-through to the kitchen, and the burlap curtains that she added (she made them from old grain sacks herself).

Here’s the view of the pass-through from the kitchen. I thought the fact that the grain sacks had designs on both sides was so smart (they’re like a double sided curtain with tons of texture and a cool collected feeling). And you know I wanted to rub my face all over those gleaming over-sized glass containers. Katrina’s kitchen also brought a giant smile to our faces because the same gray penny tile that we used in our last kitchen was just sitting there, waiting for me to pet it. So I did.

The dark wood counters and the painted cabinets with cool dark Ikea hardware stole my heart too. But my favorite part of the kitchen was the awesome built-in banquette that Katrina and Nate added to the other side of the space. The giant white mirror almost felt like a window, and the shelf on top with pretty decorative baskets added extra storage. I’m a huge fan of Katrina’s lighting and furniture choices too. They just looked easy yet really elegant. The chairs and table are both outlet finds here in Richmond (from The Decorating Outlet).

Mirror detail. Me-ow. Katrina bought it at an auction in Lynchburg for a steal.

Katrina used the same cozy and rich gray tone on the walls of the first and second floor, yet on the third floor where all the bedrooms are located, she lightened up with this soft and gorgeous blue tone (Oasis by Olympic). Walking up to this floor definitely felt airier and softer, which was a nice distinction for the bedrooms I think. And of course the art on the stairs had me at hello. I especially loved the wood planks with vintage glass bottles that Katrina wired up herself.

Here’s Katrina and Nate’s bedroom, which had a sweet lofted ceiling, fluffy white bedding, and an elegant tufted headboard. I also loved that vintage gate next to the bed (Katrina uses it to hold her jewelry)…

… and the oversized coral-pink lamp (it picked up some of the tones in Katrina’s homemade art that was hanging above it). She used pastel crayons on a canvas to make the art and then poured thick clear resin over it for a polished look (you can grab resin to DIY your own version at Michaels or JoAnn’s).

The nursery was really charming too, with light colored furnishings and a sweet tree decal kit on the wall, which Katrina made her own by adding little chalk creatures poking out of the trees.

I wish the wider shots of the room had turned out, but we did manage to snag this curtain detail that captured another one of Katrina’s tweaks that was really charming. She took inexpensive Ikea curtains and colored them just using a regular old sharpie for a watercolor-ish look that was painterly and whimsical.

So thanks so much to Katrina for opening her house up to us and letting us share all of the inspiration with you guys! Let’s play the favorite-part game. I’m calling the eat-in area of the kitchen, and John’s all over the color palette shift that occurs when you transition upstairs (it really felt like you were up in the clouds on that top floor).

Update: We just learned that Katrina used to have a blog, so although she no longer updates it we thought we’d share it in case you wanted to check it out.

Comments

Woot! Lynchburg shout out in this post! Wonder what auction…I haven’t found anything good like that at an auction here (here being Lynchburg where I live). What an amazing space though! I love all the vintage/DIY touches. Just amazing!

The jugs are actually old “water cooler” bottles. They used to make them from real glass instead of plastic. I see them from time to time at salvage yards or antique malls. If you have some locally you could check there.

I actually have a dormant blog called Design Fabulous. I put it on hold when I had my son Luke. YHL, doesn’t need to link to it since it is not active but if you want to drop by and see some old posts about the house, it is there. Maybe I will be inspired now to start it back up. Thanks Guys!

Idk….maybe not, because all I vaguely remember seeing were the yellow/grey wall frames against the floor & rug photographed in the LR….with all that awesomeness going on, seems other shots would’ve been pictured and I would’ve remembered those too. Just dreaming in color again, I guess. ;)

I’m dying. This is the most fabulous town home I’ve ever laid eyes on. I agree that she should do this professionally or AT LEAST start a blog to share her ideas. AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME! :) One of my favorite house crashes to date!

Ooo, between the pallot with the butterflies trailing off, the map of Richmond, and the eat in area, I cannot pick a favorite.

Seriously though, if Katrina is reading this where did you get that map? I’m also totally going to pitch that eat-in area to my wife (our kitchen happens to also be a darker grey with white trim). We’ve both thought that would be cool before we bought our house and for some reason I haven’t thought about since.

I am also in love with the map! (And everything else in your place, Katrina!!) I called SOL, and they said the Richmond version will be for sale in 2014. Right now they have New York and Chicago on sale.

I love that view of the kitchen with that awesome mirror! She has such a great eye- that before photo of the living room is just blah and she turned it into such a great space with so many awesome details.

LOVE the Richmond map! This is going to sound terrible, but at first glance I thought the clock next to it was framed by a toilet seat. I was waiting to read about how she’s re-purposed a toilet seat into DIY art. So glad it’s just a clock!

Totally random comment but it always seems weird to me that in your house crashing posts, you focus on one member of the family as though they are the ones wholly responsible for making the space what it is. This one isn’t quite as bad as others but I find in many it is all, “Meet Sarah. Sarah lives in a ________ in the city of ________. Sarah did _________ to her kitchen to make it more __________. Look at the great feature Sarah created in her Living Room. It really emphasizes the ____________ Sarah repurposed. I love the _________ in the ___________ that Sarah purchased while Sherry’s favourite is the ___________. We hope you enjoyed a peak into Sarah’s fantastic farmhouse/mid-century modern/townhouse/etc. Oh yeah, and Sarah’s husband Tim lives there too”

I know you guys advocate equal say in the decorating/purchases/etc. and it always seems so strange to me that your house crashing posts are often so…. half-sided! :)

We definitely love homes that represent everyone who lives there! Many times the person who shows us around is named more because we write things up based on what they tell us they’ve done. So if Katrina shows us around and explains what art she painted or what things she tweaked/bought/etc, that’s the info that creates the post – but whenever that person mentions what abother family member did (ex: Katrina said Nate laid all the flooring) we do our best to call that out too, like we did here :)

Love! Especially love the little play area….we are trying to figure out how to neatly incorporate a play area in to our little home so this is inspiring! Does anyone know where to get that city map art?